1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to pictorial communication and more particularly to flat-panel type color matrix display devices, such as those in which a discretely addressable matrix of red, green, and blue (R-G-B) picture elements are used to generate full-color alphanumeric, graphic and/or television-type video images.
2. Background of the Invention
The current generation of full-color matrix display devices do not possess sufficient pixel density to produce high-quality color images in all angular image orientations. Attempts to pack three primary color pixels (typically R-G-B) within a regular matrix, which greatly facilitates the construction and implementation of discrete pixel addressing schemes, produces asymmetrical angular resolution for images of different colors. Insufficient pixel density and asymmetrical angular resolution manifest themselves as image coarseness and color "fringing or aliasing". Coarseness and/or asymmetry of R and G primaries are particularly problematic, especially for the mixture colors yellow (R+G) and white (R+G+B). The problem arises due to the human visual system's high degree of resolution acuity for R and G. This makes the fusion of R and G primary elements difficult at practical levels of discrete element pixel density.
Two approaches have been investigated to solve this problem. The first, and most obvious, is to increase the pixel density to the point where discrete element quantization effects become insignificant. Extremely high pixel density appears to be impractical due to limitations relating to manufacturability, cost, and driver complexity. The second approach has been to define optimized geometric arrangements of R-G-B elements which minimize color fringe/aliasing effects and enable a useable resolution to be achieved in all angular image orientations. This second approach has proven difficult, primarily because of limitations relating to relatively low pixel density (coarseness) and suboptimal geometry in attempting to pack 3-color R-G-B triads into a regular orthogonal matrix. Arrangements of pixels into quatrads rather than triads has helped the angular effects, however, color fringes when combining R and G elements have continued to be difficult to eliminate.
The foregoing illustrates limitations known to exist in present devices. Thus, it is apparent that it would be advantageous to provide an alternative directed to overcoming one or more of the limitations set forth above. Accordingly, a suitable alternative is provided including features more fully disclosed hereinafter.